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FIDE Picks Grischuk to Take Carlsen’s Place, If Not Fill His Shoes

Less than a week after Magnus Carlsen of Norway, the No. 2 player in the world in the official rankings (and No. 1 in unofficial but more up-to-date calculations), made his surprising announcement that he was withdrawing from the cycle to select a challenger for the world championship, the World Chess Federation announced Wednesday that he will be replaced by Alexander Grischuk of Russia, No. 6 in the world.

The pairings for the first round of the candidates matches that will determine the challenger are now Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, No. 5, vs. Gata Kamsky of the United States, No. 19; Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, No. 4, vs. Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, No. 12; Levon Aronian of Armenia, No. 3, vs. Grischuk; and Boris Gelfand of Israel, No. 14, vs. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, No. 8. The matches will be held in Kazan, Russia, early next year.

In addition to announcing Grischuk as Carlsen’s replacement, the federation also addressed the reasons that Carlsen said that he was withdrawing, in particular his preference for a tournament to determine a champion. It said,

The match system for the World Championship has been in place for around a century with some slight variations such as in 1948 or 1999-2007 when round-robin or knock-out tournaments were also used to decide the world title. FIDE has always been sceptical about World Championship matches instead of tournaments. Ten years ago, FIDE established that the World Champion should not have any privilege when entering the World Championship Tournament (knock-out or round-robin), in accordance with the current suggestions of GM Magnus Carlsen. After 2007, FIDE discussed the format with a number of top players and many of them, including former World Champions Anatoly Karpov, Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik still preferred a match to decide the winner of the title instead of a tournament. FIDE accepted this change and returned to the classical system of a World Championship Match but without the privilege of the World Champion keeping his title in case of a tie.

The announcement, which was signed by Georgios Makropoulos, the federation’s deputy president, concluded, “As a matter of principle, FIDE cannot change its regulations upon the wish of a single player, even if this player is the World Champion or the No.1 or No.2 of the world ratings.”

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In its 1,500-year history, chess has imbedded itself in the world's culture and vocabulary. Ideas, terms and images from the game have long been used as proxies for intelligence and complexity. But chess is more than a diversion. Thousands worldwide play professionally or earn a living by teaching it to children. The Internet has transformed the game, making it easy for players anywhere to find an opponent day or night. Chess computers, originally developed to test the bounds of artificial intelligence, now play better than grandmasters. This blog will cover tournaments and events, trends and developments. Reader comments and questions will be more than welcome.

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